Gaststätte Sophieneck — Restaurant in Berlin

Having travelled many times through Germany on my way between Blighty & Italy by car and never having the opportunity to have good wholesome ‘Germanic’ food, I thought that on a trip to Berlin with the good lady and a friend of hers we would find somewhere to try.

On first impression the place was somewhat like a good British boozer so expectation was high. We ordered after a somewhat slow service and the beer arrived, - so far so good.

A while later the food arrived, to be honest while quite large in portion size its presentation and quality were not impressive.

I know German and English culinary practice have a common thread so this sort of fare is not unknown to travellers from the Germanic world.

My gammon was alright if a little dry, the sauerkraut was neutral and the fried potatoes which should have been crisp, crunchy and fluffy inside were somewhat a disaster having been drenched in sn unidentifiable ‘gravy’.

I’ve never had gammon steak with gravy even when I’ve made it, and I make my own sauerkraut too!

There’s nothing wrong with the type of food being offered only the quality. “Less is more” should be the mantra here, smaller portion size, better quality ingredients and presentation would undoubtedly make this a much more appealing place to be.

I do have German friends and acquaintances and I do know they sometimes equate large portions as being good value but this is just not the case.

I will have to admit I live in Italy and my better half is Italian so you know where I’m coming from.

I am however impressed with the beer! The staff were friendly...

One of my favorite places in Berlin! If you want a real German food done right - this is the place to go

I normally don't eat pork: I don't like the smell of it. However, I've tried both types of pork knees, Haxe and Eisbein, and it was outstanding! Haxe has more flavour to it, but Eisbein is just so soft and tender. It literally melts in your mouth. You don't need a knife to cut it. Both garnishes were also really good. I would recommend ordering some red wine to complement the taste, especially for Eisbein.

The place is located in a calm area in downtown, Mitte. Love this part of the town for its proximity to everything cool in the city, while remaining calm. The restaurant is quite small, but cosy and somehow reminds me of grandma's house, when I was a kid.

There is nothing I don't like about the place. Very easy...

Unbelievably slow and rude service. Our group was ignored most of the time. It took them half an hour just to take our order. We would have left if we weren't waiting for others to arrive still! It was over forty minutes more for the food. They couldn't even serve me a glass of tap water AT THE BAR, and I was told to wait to be served again (I'm assuming if I did wait, it would have been another hour just to get water). If you are foreign, avoid this place. The food is good but not worth being treated like garbage. I speak good German, and we had 2 Germans with us and still they were very disrespectful because many of us were foreign. I could see even locals on other tables were having trouble with the...